


Darkly Disciplined Dexter

by farkenshnoffingottom



Category: Dexter Series - Jeff Lindsay
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 16:11:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5632909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/farkenshnoffingottom/pseuds/farkenshnoffingottom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dexter had changed greatly. He was no longer the joyful slasher of the night. Lily Anne changed his world, but what he became was not good enough to survive. So he became a different monster. A darker monster, making the world a better place in the way only he could. </p><p>Now he has two children with monsters of their own, who need his guidance to stay on his righteous path, and one child, one beautiful child, who brought light into his universe and must be protected from the dark forces of the world.</p><p>Dexter must find a way to balance his Dark Desires and Dangerous Dreams with his role as the Dashing Domestic Daddy. He must find a way to discipline himself and return to the road laid out for him by the Harry Code.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkly Disciplined Dexter

**Author's Note:**

> This is very much a work in progress right now, and I hope to get another chapter up soon, but I wanted to lay the groundwork for what I'm hoping this will become. I know it's a short chapter, but please leave any feedback you have so I can improve it!
> 
> This fic is modeled after Jeff Lindsay's writing style, even though my own distinct style comes through. The events take place a year after book six (Double Dexter) finishes, and the plot points are from the book series. However, if you've only seen the show, you should have no problem understanding what's going on. Regardless, this is my interpretation of what happened after the Witness fiasco died away (pun intended).
> 
> 7/21/16 Update: This story has been suspended, but I plan to continue it sometime in the future. So sorry!

The moon glows bright over the sordid turmoil of this Miami summer night. Not quite full, but almost. It calls to us, but we must ignore it. For now.

We have followed this man back to his empty house, and are waiting for him to leave. We sit in our car, out of view of the street lamps. This street is a dead end, and we wait, certain that we cannot be seen.

We watch as the man, Mark Stevens, leaves his house, gets into his car, and drives away. We are very certain he has beaten and disposed of the bodies of five ex girlfriends, though the police never had enough evidence to convict him. Three times he’s been a person of interest, and three times the law has set him free. But we are here to fix that flaw.

All we need is proof. We need to know that he satisfies Harry’s Code. We cannot kill him until we are sure. We smile as we slide out of our car, unseen, a predator stalking its prey.

We unlock the door easily.

Inside the house, we pause, get our bearings. There is a kitchen, a living room, and a hallway to what we presume is a bedroom and bathroom. We walk stealthily down the hall.

It only takes us ten minutes to find what we need. As it turns out Mr. Stevens likes to take pictures. Unlucky for him, we are very good with a laptop, and turn them up easily.

There they are, all of his victims, bruised and bloody. We feel our excitement rising, knowing that tomorrow, we will return to this place, with our bag full of duct tape, knives, and fishing line.

But, not tonight. Our Dark Passenger rustles its wings impatiently. But, we look at our watch – 9:07 – and know we cannot stay. We promised Rita we would be home at 9:30. So we slowly slither out of the house.

As we leave, we see the moon. Red moon. One night shy of being full. _Soon_ we call to it, as we get into our car and drive back to leftovers of Rita’s wonderful cooking.

 

*** 

 

When I walked through the door sixteen minutes later, I paused for a moment to watch the blissful domestic scene. Rita sat on the couch, slumped down after a long day, watching as Cody and Astor battled to the death on their Wii. That had been something Brian – their uncle, my brother, who just so happened to be in the same business as me – had given them two years ago when he returned to Miami. He had been gone because, well, he _had_ tried to get me to murder my sister, and she was liable to arrest him or shoot him the moment she knew he was still alive.

I still did not know why he had returned, but I had started getting used to our Friday night dinners, and I was glad to have him around. Besides, the kids loved him, and not just because he’d gotten them a Wii.

The same event that had made me the monster I am had also done the same to Brian. He did not have my adoptive father Harry’s upbringing to guide him onto the path of the socially responsible serial killer I had become. Brian broke the second rule of Harry’s Code: never kill an innocent person. That was why, all those years ago, I had refused his offer of becoming true partners. I could not hurt Debra. Brian was blood, but Debra was family. Brian was slowly becoming family now, and I found myself content with that.

Cody and Astor were family too, and they shared the family resemblance. Scarred by Paul, Rita’s abusive ex-husband, the kids had the seeds of monsters planted inside them. Cody’s Shadow Guy – his name for his Dark Passenger – had already started to call out to him. I had to teach him Harry’s ways. I had to set him on the right path. Brian had sensed Cody’s passenger too, and was teaching him the tools of the trade. They started with animals, of course. That was how my dad first found out about my murderous tendencies. He’d found the bones of our neighbor’s poor old very dead dog. Cody and Astor had already helped me kill someone so we wouldn’t be killed, and Astor had just this last year had hit Bernie Elan – or Doug Crowley, or whatever his real name was - with a boat, with the result that he got eaten by a shark. Ah, how young they start. This all, of course, went on without Rita knowing. She would be horrified to know not only that she had married another psychopath, but also that her children were far from normal too.

I was proud of my two murderers in training. But I was even prouder of Lily Anne. She was now a year and a half old, and was at the moment sitting on the floor, happily hitting a toy on the ground.

I closed the door, and Rita jerked up from the couch.

“Oh Dexter! You’re home, I mean, I have. Watch Lily Anne. I hope- you, oh, you look so, I mean, let me go heat it up, stay here,” Rita whirled around the couch and into the kitchen. I hoped her fragmented sentences had meant that she was off to heat me up some of whatever delicious meal they had had for dinner. I moved around the couch and took Rita’s place, watching Lily Anne.

Lily Anne had changed me. I was no longer just Dark and Dangerous Dexter. But I was no longer only Daddy Dexter. That me had almost let Elan kill me, or at the very least get me caught by the police. Lily Anne had turned me into an almost human with almost real human emotion. But that would not do. I had lost my grip on the cool, collected Dexter, that hunter of the night, who stalked and killed his prey with a smile, who cleaned up perfectly so there was never any evidence left behind.

No, I could no longer be Deadly Dexter, and I could not be Dashing Domesticated Dexter. But in the past year, I had started to find a middle ground. I still did not feel like a true human would, but I was no longer full of the self pity and despair that had stopped me from thinking rationally and finding and killing my Witness.

I had become a mixture of the two. Darkly Disciplined Dexter. I liked the sound of that.


End file.
